Season 5: Life at UW
by ST289
Summary: Kyle, Jessi, and Declan train with Foss.
1. Chapter 1

**My second story. It picks up where my first story "The fight against Latnok" left off but if you didn't read that one it doesn't matter, you can still read this. There are some things you need to know though. Kyle and Jessi are dating but Amanda will still be an important part of the story, Declan is training with Foss to become Kyle and Jessi's bodyguard, Latnok was finished in the last story but of course someone new just has to come along, like the title says, this story will take place while Kyle and Jessi are attending UW but for this first chapter, it's their last day of summer. In this chapter Jessi gets into a fight at The Rack.**

It was their last day at home before college started. Kyle, Jessi, Declan, Lori, Mark, Jackie, and Josh were hanging out at The Rack.

"I can't believe this is the last time we'll be able to chill like this over here," Josh said. He wasn't wearing his Rack uniform because he took the day off to spend time with his three siblings in The Rack before they left. He was happy for them because like all high school kids he heard great things about college but he was also sad because he would be the only child in the house which would just be weird. Lori was going to Colgate University in upstate New York, which by some miracle, Hillary had also gotten into. And of course, Kyle and Jessi were going to UW, which was thankfully in Seattle. As for Josh, he still had two more years of high school. It was bad enough that Andy was in Colorado but now Kyle, his brother and best friend, was also leaving. "At least you guys will be still be in Seattle so you can visit every weekend," he said to Jessi and Kyle.

"Hey, I'll be sure to drop by whenever we have break," Lori said comfortingly patting him on the shoulder. Lori and Josh might have fought a lot but they really did love each other. Without Lori, Josh would have no one to keep making wise ass remarks at. Lori turned to Mark and sadly said, "I can't believe we're going to have to do this long distance." Lori could have easily picked a school much closer to UW than Colgate but she really wanted to go to a school on the east coast. This was something she had planned for a long time. She wasn't counting on meeting Mark.

"You guys are going to love, UW," Jackie said to Kyle and Jessi. "It's awesome. Especially if you're in the junior Latnok program. We might seem like a bunch of nerds but trust me, we throw some insane parties. And I don't mean like that chemistry party we had last time. That was just an official function. Kyle, remember when I first met you told you I held the record on campus for the longest keg stand? Of course, you probably don't even know what a keg stand is, do you? Declan you'll have to teach your friends the ways of college life," she said winking at him.

"But I'm not going to be a college student," Declan told her. "I'll just be cutting grass there so I can keep an eye on them." Foss and Declan had both gotten undercover jobs on campus so they could be close to Kyle and Jessi. Foss was, of course, a security guard while Declan would mow the fields. They weren't really interesting or well paying jobs but as far as they were concerned their real job was to protect Kyle and Jessi and those undercover jobs would keep them close enough to respond quickly incase they were needed.

Jackie shrugged and said, "So what? You helped save us from Cassidy. As far as every student in the Latnok program is concerned, you'll always be welcome at our parties." She was clearly trying to get Declan back and everyone knew it. She noticed Kyle and Jessi looking very solemn. Jackie knew why. "Guys, relax. You heard what Kyle's grandfather said. Latnok is nothing more than a program for gifted students now. There won't be anymore top secret illegal experiments."

"I still don't know if I want to be associated with them," Kyle said warily. He and Jessi had every right to be suspicious. When Cassidy had lured them to join, Latnok didn't seem anything like a highly secretive evil organization. But Cassidy had still managed to use them and the other students for his own plans. How could they be so sure that the new management won't do the same?

"Kyle, trust me," Mark said taking a break from kissing Lori. "Once you graduate from UW and apply for a job wherever, if they see that you were part of the Latnok program, you're guaranteed to get that job. It looks incredibly good on a resume. Not to mention you'll make all kinds of valuable connections that'll help you out later in life." Mark's words reminded Kyle of what Emily said about college in general.

"And also, if you ever need money, you can always enter in those competitions like you did last time," Jackie pointed out. "They paid you 10 grand last time, didn't they? And one of you guys is guaranteed to win. But just be fair to the rest of us and don't participate in every single one. I mean, give the rest of us a chance to win too, you know?" She and Mark looked specifically at Jessi while she said this.

"What? Do you really think I'm like that?" Jessi asked incredulously.

Just then there was a loud scuffle a few tables away. Everyone looked to see what was going on. L.K. Deichman, the guy Kyle sat with in the cafeteria on his first day of school was looking nervously at three large angry guys, one of whom was Amanda's ex, Charlie Tanner. Charlie shoved Deichman hard easily making him fall. The three of them laughed but so did several other teenagers from school who were watching. Deichman was pretty much the loser of the school and nobody liked him. Even Josh and Lori wouldn't be caught dead talking to him because they were afraid what their classmates might think. The only people that didn't treat him like an untouchable were Kyle and Jessi, Kyle because he accepted everybody, and Jessi because she was also an outcast for much of the school year.

"Where the hell do you get off drawing a picture of my girlfriend and giving it to her?" Charlie growled while looking down at Deichman menacingly.

"Chill out! It was just a drawing!" Deichman stammered.

"Get up!" Charlie ordered. Deichman got to his feet trembling all the way. As soon as he was up however Charlie punched him in the stomach causing him to fall back down gasping for air. Everyone laughed again. Kyle stared in shock at not only what Charlie was doing but also at the fact that everyone else in The Rack, people who weren't even jerks like Charlie, were laughing. He wouldn't stand for this. He got up and made his way towards them.

Charlie grabbed Deichman from the floor and lifted him up. He reared his fist back about to strike him again when Kyle yelled, "Stop it! Let him go, right now!" All three of the bullies turned around and saw Kyle standing all by himself. Kyle turned to everyone else in The Rack and yelled, "What's wrong with you people? How could you all laugh at this? What if it were you up here getting beaten up by three guys?" Charlie laughed and pushed Deichman away. Beating up Kyle was going to be a lot more fun than Deichman. He and his buddies advanced on him.

Kyle raised his fists and got into a fighting stance and the crowd of people cheered excitedly. They reminded Kyle of the ancient Romans that cheered in the Coliseum while gladiators tore each other to pieces. _Why is it that even good human beings are instinctively drawn to violence?_ he wondered. But he could always think about that later. Now was the time to fight. Charlie still thought of him as the guy who never throws a punch but Kyle was about to show everybody just how much he had changed this summer. Before anyone could throw a punch, however, Declan suddenly arrived and stood by Kyle's side. He glared at his former friends and said, "Three against one? I don't think so. You mess with Kyle, you mess with me." He knew that Kyle could easily handle all three of them but there was no way in hell he would let him have all the fun. Besides, this was a great opportunity to impress Lori…

Charlie shook his head in disgust. "What the hell happened to you this year McDonough?" he asked. "You know what? I don't even care. I'm going to enjoy stomping your face in. McDonough's all mine," he told his friends. He and Declan stepped away from the others.

Charlie lunged forward and threw a punch at Declan's face but Declan dodged. He threw two punches at Charlie who managed to block both of them. Charlie threw another punch but Declan ducked punched him in the ribs. While they were going at it Charlie's friends tried to got ready to hit Kyle at the same time but all of a sudden, Jessi ran in front of him. All of them looked surprised. Jessi got into a fighting stance and the crowd went absolutely wild. "Jessi, no, they're mine," Kyle protested but she just ignored him.

Both of Charlie's friends looked reluctant to hit a girl so Jessi decided to hit first. In a lightning fast motion she punched the guy on the left two times. It was so quick her hands looked like blurs and both punches landed before his head could move back from the first punch. It was easily enough force to knock him down. Whatever hesitation his friend felt about hitting a girl was gone and he threw a punch at her but she blocked and responded with a punch to his face that send him staggering back. He didn't expect a girl to hit that hard. The guy on the ground grabbed her leg and tried to pull her down but she kicked him in the face and knocked him out.

While her back was turned the second guy tried to charge her and knock her on the ground but she jumped into the air and to the astonishment of everyone watching, she did a back flip clean over his head and landed behind him. The crowd gasped and the guy just stood there in shock for a second confused about what happened. He turned around and was met with a blindingly fast combination of several punches. When Jessi stopped hitting him he just stood there for a second, then swayed on his feet, and fell forward into Jessi who caught him. She wasn't done with him yet.

Declan and Charlie continued to go at it but by now the fight had turned into a grappling match with both opponents struggling to take the other down. All of a sudden his friend's unconscious body came flying out of nowhere slammed into Charlie and knocked him and Declan down. Before Declan could protest her intrusion, Jessi ran over, hopped over Declan, and grabbed Charlie by the throat and lifted him into the air like she loved to do. She just held him there for a few seconds while he squirmed helplessly and struggled to breathe. The whole Rack watched in awe as she held him in the air with just one arm. They all knew there was something weird about her but none of them would have guessed that she was that strong. After a few seconds Charlie stopped struggling as he slipped into unconsciousness. _That's good enough. I don't want to kill him _she thought with a satisfied smile and released her grip. Charlie fell on the floor motionless but still alive. Jessi glared at the previously screaming crowd which was now completely silent, daring somebody to step up and challenge her. Of course, no one did.

That victorious feeling was short lived however, because ten minutes later Jessi found herself standing outside The Rack looking at it with a very sad expression on her face. Her lip was quivering and she looked like she was about to cry. She had been permanently banned, along with Declan, Charlie, and his friends from ever coming back to The Rack again. Out of all of them Jessi took it the hardest. The Rack was basically her only hangout spot; it was the only place she knew. She'd been coming here since her earliest days out of the pod when she just wanted to get away from Emily. "I can't believe they banned me from The Rack," she said looking down and clutching her head with grief. "I love The Rack. Where will I go now when I want to relax and have a strawberry smoothie? This can't be happening to me…"

"This is ridiculous! How could they do this to us?" Declan shouted pacing around in the parking lot. His face was bloody and bruised from fighting with Charlie but he still had plenty of adrenaline left over from the fight which was making him annoyingly hyper. "Yeah, I can understand why Charlie got banned but what did me and Jessi do? All we were doing was saving Deichman from getting his ass kicked! What were we supposed to do? Stand back and watch laughing like everyone else?" he yelled towards the building as if the manager inside could hear him. "Huh? Is that what you wanted us to do?"

"Oh please, just shut up," Lori said rolling her eyes at him. "Everyone knows you don't care about Deichman. You just didn't want Kyle to get all the glory. That's why you didn't get up until Kyle was already over there."

"Hey, that's not true, Trager!" he shot back indignantly. "I don't like to watch three guys beating up one weaker guy. That's just wrong. I wasn't going to just stand back and watch them kick the crap out of him!" he declared. Jackie gazed at him adoringly but Lori just shook her head in pity; she knew him better than that. Actually they were both right. Declan didn't like what Charlie was doing, but like Lori said, he wasn't planning on getting involved until he saw Kyle confronting them and he felt bad that he wasn't up there himself.

"Hey, weren't you one of the guys that put me head first into a garbage can freshmen year?" Deichman asked speaking up for the first time. Josh tried his hardest to not burst out laughing while Kyle looked completely aghast that Declan would do such a thing. Lori smiled at him mockingly. _Let's see you get out of this one McDonough_ she thought. Mark and Jackie also looked very interested in hearing his explanation while Jessi was completely oblivious to the conversation as she was too busy staring at The Rack.

Declan turned red. "Uh did I?" he said awkwardly. "I don't remember that. I mean freshmen year was such a long time ago. Maybe you have me confused with somebody else…"

"No, he doesn't," Lori said shaking her head. "I remember seeing you guys. It was Preston, Charlie, and _you_," she said jabbing him in the chest with her finger.

"Okay fine! But I was different back then. And as you just saw, I'm no longer friends with any of those guys," he replied pointing to Charlie and his friends who were scowling at them from across the parking lot. They looked like they were waiting for Deichman to be alone so they could finish what they started. Declan was so hyper right now he just wanted to run over there and continue his fight with Charlie which Jessi had interrupted. But Kyle had to be such a killjoy by warning him that if he did that he would have to fight all three of them by himself and no one would help him.

While Jackie comforted Jessi and told her that there were many more similar places all over Seattle, Kyle offered to walk Deichman back to his car which was parked next to where Charlie and his friends were standing. Declan watched warily to make sure that they wouldn't try to jump the two of them. But even if they did, by the time he ran over there to help, Kyle would have been done with them. Still he had too much excess adrenaline left over from the fight. So when he saw Charlie say something to Deichman and laugh with his friends, he just had to shout across the parking lot, "Yo, Charlie! How does it feel to get your ass kicked by a girl?" He laughed hysterically as he watched Charlie's grin vanish. He was first mad that Jessi had interfered in his fight but his feelings changed when he realized that it was way more humiliating to Charlie to get beaten by a girl.

But a moment later Charlie's smile came back and he responded by yelling, "You know what Declan? I really don't care. Because I'm still going to be playing for UConn this year while you'll be stuck here at home! Have fun watching me on T.V!" All of Declan's extra energy just drained out of him with that comment. Because of his ankle, his dream of playing college basketball, and maybe someday the NBA, was dead. Charlie would still be able to follow that dream though. UConn was one of Declan's favorite college basketball teams and every time he'd watch them play he'd see Charlie playing. He would rather have lost the fight to Charlie than get reminded of that.

Kyle returned a few seconds later. "So, Kyle," Lori began, deciding it was the right time to ask him, "I saw you putting your fists up and everything but were you really going to fight Charlie?" she asked raising an eyebrow. "I mean, I can picture you dodging all his punches until he gets tired and gives up, but I don't think you would have actually hit him. I mean," she chuckled, "that just wouldn't be you now, would it?"

"I don't know about that," Josh said skeptically. "Remember last month when Cassidy broke into our house and Kyle sent him flying through our patio door? Kyle can fight back when he needs to."

"I know he _can,_ Josh, but how often does he do it?" Lori countered. "Cassidy threatened to kill us and Amanda, and Jessi, not to mention he shocked him several times. All that must have finally pushed him over the edge. But he's still Kyle and unless he was in a situation like that again he wouldn't hurt a fly let alone a jerk like Charlie." Lori had no idea how much Kyle had changed after that night. She still thought he was the same person he was when he came to their house and for the most part he still was. But he wondered what she would think if she ever found out that he killed someone. _No, I can't regret that. I did what I had to do and no one else will find out about it_ he told himself sharply. Jessi didn't say anything but she squeezed his hand showing her support.

Meanwhile in Washington D.C., Nate sat alone in an interrogation room. Perez had him flown out of the Arizona state penitentiary to the nation's capital. Once he landed, he was immediately escorted to some anonymous government building and led into this room. Like all those police interrogation rooms, this one had a large mirror on the wall, which Nate knew was a one way window from which people outside could see him. After a while he just put his head down and almost fell asleep when he finally heard someone enter the room. He lazily looked up expecting to see Perez but it was someone else. The man sat down across from him but didn't even look at him. Instead his eyes were fixed on some files he put down on the table in front of him.

For a long time he just kept reading the files which, Nate guessed, were probably on him. Nate didn't say anything. He just waited patiently for the man to finish reading. He didn't even know who these people were but Perez had told him that they were some government agency. After a while Nate was beginning to get bored again. "Hey pal, wake me up when you're ready to talk," he said and put his head back down. The man looked up at him for the first time and closed the folder.

"So you're supposed to be some kind of genius," he said not looking very impressed. Nate rolled his eyes and looked up. There was definitely something familiar about his him. Nate didn't know where exactly he had seen him but he knew he did. It wasn't someone that he met personally but he could have seen his face on the news or wherever. "You don't look like one," the man remarked.

"That's because I'm not just a genius," Nate replied with a confident smirk. "I'm a prodigy. I don't mean to sound cocky, but I'm one of the smartest people in the world. You kinda have to be to get accepted into the junior Latnok program." As was his style, Nate stared the man right in the eye to show that he wasn't intimidated by him. The man was impressed by his confidence.

"Let's just hope you can live up to your talk," he said. He then slid his folder across the table to Nate. "This is your next assignment. You have forty eight hours to brief yourself on it. Feel free to use any of this building's facilities. You won't really see me again but Agent Perez will be monitoring you. If you have any problems talk to him. You're being given a great opportunity here. Not only will we keep you out of prison but we'll pay you very handsomely. Don't screw this up." With that the mysteriously familiar looking man got up and exited the room leaving Nate all by himself. Nate looked down at the contents of the folder. Apparently once the government found out that Kyle and Jessi could be much more useful out of the pod than in they lost interest in the whole bio-computer thing they had going on with Madacorp. Now, they had a different idea. Kyle and Jessi could be the perfect killing machines. The only problem was that they refused to cooperate. So two plans were set in motion. One would be led by agent Perez while the other would be led by Nate. After what he'd been through, Nate had absolutely no confidence in Perez's plan but the one that he was put in charge of could potentially work.

**This is the last day I've had so much free time. After today I don't know when I'll be able to update again. It might be a while but please review, let me know what you think.**


	2. Chapter 2

**This chapter is about their training on their first day at UW a few hours before their classes start. I don't own these characters or the show, ABC Family does.**

Two shadowy figures dashed down the desolate street, practically flying past all the houses and shops, towards their destination many blocks away. The sky was still pitch black and the neighborhood was barely lit by a few dim streetlamps. There were no cars on the road yet and the only sound that could be heard was from the light drizzle and their shoes rapidly hitting the ground. They showed no signs of slowing down despite running at that speed for a long distance. They continued running at this unnaturally fast, constant pace for a few more blocks until they finally reached their destination, an apartment building. All the lights were off as everyone inside was still sleeping.

Inside one of the apartments on the third floor, the lock on a window mysteriously moved all by itself as it was pushed by an invisible force. Once the window was unlocked, the same force caused the window slide up all by itself barely making any noise. The two shadowy runners climbed inside the apartment, one after another. Once they were both inside, they looked around. The room was completely bare without any furniture but there was someone lying on the floor in a sleeping bag. The person was fast asleep, completely oblivious to their presence. The two of them walked over and looked down at the person. They both looked at each other and nodded.

At that moment, Declan opened his eyes. He blinked several times to make sure he wasn't hallucinating to dark shadowy strangers in his new apartment looking down at him with one of them about to touch his face. The next thing he knew, he was screaming and wildly thrashing about. He tried to punch one of them in the face but they grabbed his arms pinned them down. He was no match for the person's strength. "Let go of me!" he yelled frantically. "Help! Somebody, help!"

"Declan relax! It's only us!" he heard Kyle's voice.

"Kyle?" he said incredulously. He began calming down. If one of them was Kyle then the other had to be, "Jessi?" His fear went away as quickly as it came and it was replaced with confusion and anger.

"What the hell are you two doing here? You scared the crap out of me!" he shouted.

"Foss sent us to wake you up," Kyle answered. "It's time for our morning training. We have six minutes and forty two seconds to get back to him and he's a mile away. So please hurry up and let's go."

Declan noticed that both of them were breathing heavily as if they just finished a strenuous workout. _What could possibly leave Kyle and Jessi out of breath? _Declan wondered. He was so confused and sleepy he didn't even register the last part that Kyle said.

"Wait a minute, Foss sent you guys to wake me up?" They both nodded.

"Why couldn't he just call me so I would have been up and ready?" he asked.

Jessi sighed impatiently. "I don't know but maybe it's so that you'd learn to be up and running at a moments notice and not ask questions like you are now," she speculated. "Anyway we now have six minutes and twenty five seconds to run back to him. Kyle and I can easily make it back in less than four but we know you can't run that fast and we all have to make it back there together at the same time so you really need to move," she said urgently.

"What? I don't under…"

"I mean _now_," Jessi said impatiently emphasizing the now. Declan scowled at her and hastily got out of his sleeping bag. _Damn you Foss… _Kyle went back to the window and jumped out.

"Uh, I'm actually going to take the stairs," Declan said nervously

"We don't have time for that!" Jessi snapped. She grabbed his arm and pulled him to the window. Before he could protest she picked his legs up and tossed him out and he was falling headfirst but suddenly, defying the laws of physics, his body flipped around right side up and he landed gently.

"Thanks Kyle," he said appreciatively. "Of course, it just wouldn't be Seattle without the rain," he grumbled.

"Did you know that the total amount of precipitation Seattle receives annually is less than other cities like New York?" Kyle commented.

"Dude, everyone in Seattle's heard that," Declan told him.

A second later Jessi landed right next to him after she closed the window.

"We only have five minutes and four seconds! Let's go!" she yelled and she and Kyle took off. Declan did his best to follow them but he couldn't keep up with their speed. He wasn't a track athlete but the last time he ran a timed mile for gym class, he got a 5:36 which was a pretty good for someone who didn't specifically train for that race. Unfortunately it wouldn't be good enough to make it back in the time Foss had given them so he would really have to push himself.

Kyle and Jessi kept running ahead until Kyle turned around to see how Declan was holding up and saw that he wasn't there. "Wait! Declan got left behind!" Both of them stopped running and looked behind them.

"Great! We only have four minutes and eight seconds and we have to go back and get him?" Jessi hated losing especially when it wasn't her fault.

A mile away, Tom Foss was waiting patiently in one of the many fields on the UW campus, looking at his cellphone with the stopwatch feature on. He wasn't really disappointed by their lateness. He had been expecting it. It was after all the first day of 'real' training just like Kyle had asked for. When they finally arrived, Kyle and Jessi didn't look tired at all because the run back was not nearly as challenging as the run there. Because of Declan, they had to run much slower on the way back. But Declan, who had just woken up and never ran such a fast mile before in his life, collapsed onto his knees and threw up. Although he had trained with Foss before, he hadn't had a workout like this since his basketball days and he was finding out the hard way that he was out of shape.

"10:42," Foss said shaking his head. "You're late by forty two seconds."

"It's not our fault," Jessi protested. "Declan slowed us down." She frowned at him for being the reason she failed. He flipped her off and resumed vomiting. _What the hell does she expect?_ he thought angrily._ I can't just wake up and run a four minute mile like them. I'm not a track athlete or created in a laboratory…_ They hadn't even given him time to stretch and warm up. Every coach knows that wasn't good for your muscles and right now his ankle was hurting a lot.

Surprisingly, Foss took his side.

"Shut up. I didn't ask whose fault it was," Foss snapped. "The task was to get back here together. You either pass or fail together. And of course he would have slowed you down. He's only ordinary, you know that. Instead, you two should have anticipated this and ran to his place faster than what you did so he would have had at least six minutes to run back."

"But we reached his apartment in just three minutes and two seconds," Jessi argued back. It was certainly an impressive time for a mile since the Olympic record was slower at 3:43. _Damn, no wonder they were so out of breath, _Declan thought. But Foss wasn't impressed.

"Well, you should've done it in less than 2:30. I know you're capable of it. That would have saved a lot of time, on the way back."

He looked at Declan who was still on the ground breathing heavily. Beads of sweat were dripping off his face. Foss was sure that Declan also bore some responsibility in this.

"But Declan, I bet that you would have given yourself more time if you just jumped out of bed and started running instead of asking questions like I know you did. I bet they wasted a whole two minutes in your apartment just talking to you. Am I right?" Declan was too tired to say anything to defend himself.

Foss turned back to Kyle and Jessi and said, "I'm going to train Declan for a while because right now, he fight's like a typical frat boy and a trained opponent would eat him for lunch." Declan rolled his eyes but he knew that Foss was right. He only beat Nate because of luck. Nate was clearly the better fighter.

"In the meantime, here's what you two are going to do," Foss continued. I have a 45 lb barbell and a bunch of weights in the back of my van. Load up 135 lbs and try to lift it above the cross member of that goal post. It should be easy for you, it's only ten feet high. Then keep adding weight. I'll keep checking on you. Any questions? Good get to it."

Kyle and Jessi walked to Foss's van and opened it. Jessi got the 45lb bar out while Kyle grabbed two 45lb plates.

"Have you ever bench pressed one of these?" she asked curiously.

"No," Kyle replied. "I have done weight training with Foss but it's quite different than what people do at the gym." He telepathically showed her that memory when Foss had him jump around and balance himself with the barbell on his shoulders while shouting math questions at him.

"Ouch, that must have hurt," she said referring to when he lost focus and fell. Kyle nodded.

They stood under the goal post and loaded up the two 45 lb plates so that it weighed 135 lbs.

"Okay, so all we have to do is levitate this over the goal post? No problem. I'll go first," Jessi said confidently. After all, she could easily levitate people that weighed much more.

She began concentrating on it. The barbell shook, then slowly rose into the air. It very slowly began rising up to a meager height of three feet. It just stayed at that height for a few seconds. She kept concentrating on it and it rose a few more centimeters and stopped again. By now it was clear to Kyle that Jessi was having trouble with it. She was struggling just to keep it from coming down. It began wobbling in the air. Sweat began running down her forehead. But of course, Jessi was Jessi, and instead of trying it with less weight, she kept trying in vain. The barbell didn't get any higher but blood trickled out of her nose. Kyle decided to stop her before she injured herself.

"That's enough, Jessi," he said putting his hand on her shoulder. Jessi closed her eyes and broke the concentration causing the barbell to fall back down on the grass. She felt dizzy and began swaying on her feet. Kyle quickly caught her before she fell. "If you found it that hard, you should have taken some weight off not kept going," he chided her.

"I'll be fine. I just need a minute to rest," she said wiping the blood of her nose.

"Well, you are better at levitating things than I am so if you couldn't do it, there's no way I can," he sighed.

Jessi smiled. Ever since she had broken free from Madacorp, Kyle was the standard she was trying to live up to in basically everything. She was always trying to compete with him. She was happy that finally there was something she was better at than him but even happier that he was okay with it without his ego being an issue. She didn't sense any jealousy from him at all. Kyle was special.

Jessi realized why she couldn't lift it. She thought she could do it because she could easily throw people around with her mind that were much heavier. But that was only because human body was composed of a lot of water. Jessi and Kyle could easily move water around by manipulating the magnetic polarity of the H2O molecules. But manipulating the gravitational field of an object's atomic mass was much harder. In other words, dry objects were much harder to move than anything with water in it. Jessi and Kyle already knew this but they had no idea how weak they were in this ability.

"For now, let's try doing just the bar without any weights on it," Kyle suggested. "If you can do it easily then add some weight to it. And Jessi, you need to take it easy. The goal here is to make you stronger. Not to kill yourself. Understand?" Jessi nodded.

"Now that you know all the parries and blocks, I'm going to throw different types of punches at you," Foss said to Declan. Foss was wearing gloves so he wouldn't seriously injure Declan while training him. They both got into their fighting stances. Foss suddenly threw a blindingly fast jab that hit Declan in the face and knocked him down. It was so fast that even though he was expecting it, he didn't react fast enough. "Are you okay?" Foss asked.

Declan stumbled to his feet and nodded, a little dazed. He shook it off and got back into the stance. Foss threw a right hook which was easier to see since it traveled more distance. Declan quickly raised his left arm and blocked it. "Good," Foss said. He quickly dipped and punched Declan in the stomach causing him to drop to the ground and gasp for breath. Foss sighed. They had a long way to go. But he was confident that Declan could do it. "That's it, breathe. Come on. Get back up," he said patiently.

Meanwhile, Kyle loaded up two five pound weights onto the barbell so it weighed 55 lbs. He began concentrating. The barbell began rising in the air.

"That's it, Kyle," Jessi said watching it slowly rise up.

It rose to his height and kept getting higher. But every foot it got higher, its rate of ascent got slower because it was harder to push it up.

"You're doing it. Come on, just a little more."

It began wobbling as Kyle found it increasingly hard to control it the further away it got from him.

Almost there…"

Very slowly, the barbell rose above the goalpost. "You did it!" Jessi exclaimed. Kyle stopped concentrating and let the barbell fall back down. He wiped the sweat off his forehead and exhaled.

"Okay now let me try," Jessi said eager to redeem herself and prove that she was better than him.

After doing that for a while, Foss got an idea.

"I don't know if this is going to work or not. But maybe it's possible for you two to project energy through the air in the form of a miniature shockwave," he said.

"Whoa. Shockwave?" Declan repeated. He didn't even know exactly what a shockwave was but it sounded cool as hell.

"That's right," Foss said nodding his head. "Every time there's a big explosion, before the actual explosion even occurs, it first sends out a shockwave through the air. Even if you're well outside the blast radius, you'll still be thrown back from the shockwave. I know because I've narrowly avoided a couple of explosions."

"It's basically a sudden wave of energy that travels through any medium like air or water or even the ground if there's enough energy," Kyle explained.

"And…you'll be able to send these energy waves through the air at bad guys?" Declan asked.

"To knock them down," Foss said. "That too, maybe. I don't even know if it's possible."

"Let's try it out," Jessi said.

Foss walked forward a few a few feet and put an empty coke bottle on the ground. He walked back to Kyle. "Alright now try to concentrate as much energy in your hands as you can and when I tell you to, release it all of a sudden."

Kyle nodded and said, "Okay." He began concentrating. The atoms in his hands began to become excited and began vibrating with the increased energy. Slowly he began building up more and more energy. "Tell me when," he said still concentrating.

"Keep building it up," Foss said patiently. Everyone waited for about three minutes. Jessi began to sense the energy concentration in Kyle's hands.

"I can feel it," she told them.

"Feel what?" Declan asked.

"The energy he's building up," she replied without taking her eyes of him. She wasn't sure if it was enough to knock the bottle over

"Get ready…" Foss said slowly. Kyle faced his palms towards the coke bottle. "Now!" Foss yelled.

Kyle released all the energy into the air in front of him but nothing happened. There either wasn't enough energy or he didn't release it fast enough. The bottle didn't even budge. Foss sighed. "Well it was worth a shot," he said.

"No, wait, I felt something!" Kyle exclaimed.

"I also sensed a propagating disturbance in the air molecules, although a very small one," Jessi said. "I don't think you'll be able to knock over anyone with that. It wasn't even enough for a gust of wind."

"Let me try again," Kyle implored.

"Some other time," Foss said. "We're almost done for today. But I have one more exercise for you and Jessi."

A few minutes later…

"Push! You only have a minute left!" Foss said from inside his van.

Also sitting inside the van were Declan and Jessi. Kyle, however, was outside struggling to push the massive vehicle, which carried three people as well as all the weights Foss had brought, as fast as he could all the way to Declan's apartment. Foss had given him only fifteen minutes to do it. Since it was so early still, there were no other cars on the road which allowed them to train like this. At the beginning of the exercise, Kyle pushed the van at a speed that would just barely make it in time. But by now, he was completely exhausted. He was breathing heavily and he began slowing down. His muscles burned with lactic acid he hadn't felt in such a long time, especially his quadriceps and calves. _I should never have stopped my training _he thought.

"No! Don't slow down now! You're almost there!" Foss ordered.

"Come on, Kyle! You can do it! Forget about the time, just focus on finishing the task!" Jessi yelled trying to motivate him. Declan joined her.

"Only a half a block more, Kyle. Come on, man, you're a beast! I know you can do this!"

But despite his best effort, he arrived at Declan's place a minute and twenty five seconds over the time limit. He collapsed onto the road with exhaustion. Foss, Declan, and Jessi came out of the van. Jessi looked at him with pride while Declan looked at him with respect and admiration but Foss looked with only disappointment. "What's the matter, Kyle?" he asked. "I gave you a whole ten minutes. That's plenty of time. You're weak. You clearly need a lot more physical training."

Jessi looked shocked at how negative Foss was. _He_ certainly wouldn't be able to do it. But she respected Foss so she didn't say anything.

Declan felt the same way. He helped his friend up. "It's okay, man. Good effort. There's no way in hell I could do that." Kyle was too tired to respond.

"Declan, go get some sleep," Foss told him. "But remember, your new job starts in three hours so don't oversleep," he reminded him.

"Just one thing though," Declan said. "My ankle seriously hurts like hell from the run. Don't just wake me up like that next time. Give me some time to like stretch and stuff."

"Yeah I know," Foss said nodding. "Today was just a test to see where you're all at. But of course, I'll give you time to warm up and get ready."

"Hey. I'm sorry if I was a little mean to you today," Jessi apologized. "I know it's not fair to compare you to us. It's just… sometimes I get so competitive…"

Declan was pretty pissed off at Jessi for her attitude but it rapidly faded away with her apology. He nodded understandingly.

"It's okay. I know what you mean. Don't worry about it. I guess I'll see you both later today. Good night, or morning, whatever," he said. He still had no idea what time it was.

"Good morning," Kyle and Jessi said simultaneously and Declan went inside.

"Okay, Kyle, get in the van," Foss said. "Jessi, now it's your turn. Push us back to UW. You also get fifteen. Or maybe I should make it fourteen since there's one less person in the van now."

Half an hour later, Kyle and Jessi limped back to their dorms together using each other for support. It had been too many months since the last time they exerted themselves like this. Their muscles were very sore. But they were both happy and proud that they survived their first training session. There would be a lot more of these in the future. The sky was finally turning from black to a dark blue and there were some early morning joggers running around.

"Today is our first day of college," Jessi remarked. "I hope it's everything they say it is. Everyone we talked to said good things about it. I'm so excited. Just think, in a few hours we'll be in our first class together!" Kyle and Jessi had some of the same classes and also some different ones.

"Maybe they'll actually challenge us here," Kyle said hopefully. "Not like high school where I already knew everything." Kyle never really had to go to high school. Steven and Nicole were willing to hire a private tutor for him but he chose to go to school like everyone else because he wanted to study why his fellow human beings acted the way they did. He could continue doing that here too but he hoped his professors could actually teach him and make him think.

"I know right? On my first day of high school, the first thing I did when I got back home was memorize all my text books. In just a few hours I learned everything that they spent the rest of the school year teaching us."

"That's because you don't have a life, Jessi," Kyle said smiling. Jessi smiled back and playfully shoved him but he was so exhausted from the training that he fell down on the grass. Both of them started laughing at how weak they both were while Jessi had to struggle quite a bit to help Kyle up.

Unknown to them, they were being watched by a totally inconspicuous man talking on a cellphone. There didn't seem to be anything odd about him at all. But the man knew who Kyle and Jessi were and he knew they were very tired after practicing their abilities so they wouldn't be able to enhance their hearing and listen to what he was saying.

"Man, they're completely burned out," he said astounded by how they were stumbling around. "That training must have really kicked their ass. Forget about ambushing them, I could sedate both of them right now and they wouldn't be able to stop me."

"Negative. Do not attempt to take them down by yourself," the voice ordered. "They're far too strong."

"I'm telling you they can barely walk and they're so distracted by each other. There's no way they'll be able to fight back," the man said over confidently.

"What about the bodyguard?" a voice inquired.

"He left already," the man replied.

"He left? I don't think so. No bodyguard would leave their clients unprotected like that. Especially not Tom Foss."

"Well, I don't see him anywhere," the man said looking around for Foss. "And his van is gone. We might not get another chance like this."

"Are there any witnesses in the area?" the voice asked.

"Yeah, a bunch of joggers. But if I can get close enough to inject them, I can make it look like they passed out on their own. I'll pretend to call an ambulance and you guys can come pick them up pretending to be the paramedics." There was a few second's pause as the man on the other end thought about this.

"Very well, you may proceed," he said.

The man began walking towards Kyle and Jessi at a brisk pace while pretending to have a totally different conversation on the phone. He had the syringe hidden in his sleeve. He didn't pay any attention to a jogger approaching him. The jogger was wearing a hood over his head and looking down while breathing heavily. All of a sudden the jogger unexpectedly punched him in the jaw and knocked him down. Before he knew what was happening, the jogger punched him several more times in the face, knocking him unconscious. The jogger then took the cellphone from the man's hand. He took his hood off revealing himself to be Foss.

"Nice try," he growled and hung up the phone and smashed it on the ground.

He looked around him and saw that there were at least two people who stopped jogging and were staring at what he did with shock. He looked back down at the man thinking, _Great. I can't make this guy just disappear in front of these people._ He reluctantly left the unconscious man on the ground and followed Kyle and Jessi from a distance to make sure no one else would mess with them.

**Let me know what you think. Next chapter will be about their first day. Since I'm not in college yet I'll have to ask a bunch of friends what it's like and everything. That and the other stuff in my life, so it may take a while to update. Hey, if anybody has ideas for new abilities for Kyle and Jessi let me know.  
**


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